'Matt's too sexy for my show'

As his scandalous novel The Death of Bunny Munro lands on our screens, Nick Cave and the show's star Matt Smith discuss Kylie, bad dads and child actors

- Shaad D'Souza

Nick Cave claims that at least four different production companies have tried to turn his frequently hilarious, always disturbing, sex-filled novel The Death of Bunny Munro into a film or TV show in the 16 years since its release. The problem? "No one would play the character!" he says, sitting, impeccably suited as always, in a room at London's Corinthia Hotel. As it turns out, the material was just waiting for the right actor. Step up Matt Smith to play the titular sex-addicted travelling makeup salesman.

It's not surprising that it ended up being Smith. Since his Doctor Who days, he has tended to pick roles that trend slightly twisted - and the role of Bunny, who in Cave's book is depicted as a borderline animalistic misogynist who sweats pure ethanol, fits the bill entirely. "I think it's important to tell stories that feel challenging and difficult and polarising, and I thought this would be all of those things," Smith says animatedly, clad in head-to-toe black in contrast with Bunny's rakish suit. "But actually, at its heart, it's about a father and son, and it's really beautiful."

First published in 2009 - after initially being written as a film script for Australian director John Hillcoat - The Death of Bunny Munro follows a sex-obsessed salesman who, after driving his wife to suicide through his constant infidelity, kidnaps his bookish son (played brilliantly by Rafael Mathé) when social services attempt to take him away, and brings him on a surreal road trip around Sussex.